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8 Reasons Why You Should Enroll Your Kid in Summer Sports Camp

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Get a head start on planning a great summer for your kids by enrolling them in sports camp! We’ve got eight reasons why this is the ultimate camp experience!

More than six million children attend some form of camp each year in the US.

It’s time to get a head start on planning a great summer for your kids by checking out sports camps. Why should you send your child to camp?

We’ve got eight reasons that sports camps are the ultimate experience for any child.

Read below to see why sending your child to camp is more than just learning about sports.

1. Take a Technology Break

Times have changed, and technology rules our lives more than before. Sending your child to camp will give him or her a much-needed break from this distraction.

Technology can impede a child’s development. Studies show that technology may cause depression, obesity, attention disorders, and addiction.

Camp may spark a new energy in your child and help them break this addiction.

2. Discover a New Passion

Sports camp can be a chance for your child to try a new sport. This week-long adventure can be a gateway to see if your son or daughter enjoys it before committing to an entire season.

You can even try multiple camps throughout the summer to see which sport your child enjoys best.

Camps force children to leave their comfort zone and try new things. Children have a much higher chance of finding something they enjoy when pushed out of their familiar settings.

Your child may never know that he or she likes a sport until he or she tries it. Camp helps children discover themselves and their likes and dislikes.

3. Fun, Fun, Fun

Of course, one of the main reasons you want your child to go to sports camp is to have fun. Every parent wants their child to have a memorable summer.

Let your child enjoy an adventure for a week. Chances are they may want to do it again if it’s a sport they enjoy.

4. Meet New People and Make Friends

Your child will meet new people and will likely develop new friendships. These friends are an opportunity for your child to expand his or her social groups and improve social development.

Since your child is at a specialized camp, he or she already shares an interest with these new children. Building friendships at camp may create a more confident child.

These new friends may even last a lifetime.

5. Self-Discipline

All sports demand self-discipline to be successful. This skill will help your child not only in athletics but also in life as they continue to grow and develop.

In order to be a good leader, your child will need strong self-discipline. Your child will be asked to accomplish goals at camp. All of these goals require teamwork and sharing resources.

Facing these challenges will force your child to discover the importance of hard work and perseverance. Your child will learn to meet goals in a fun environment.

6. Build Character and Self Esteem

Along with self-discipline, your child will also build other good character qualities like confidence, social interaction, honesty, and kindness.

Social media has a bad influence on children because they constantly compare themselves to others, and they may get negative feedback on posts. Sports camp gets your child away from this toxic environment and allows them to build their self-esteem with peers.

Your child will also learn to deal with stress, which can affect her much later in life. Exercise is a great stress reducer.

Each day your child will work on core values such as respect, responsibility, teamwork, and dependability. These values will create a strong, good core for your child’s character.

7. Build Life-Long Healthy Habits

You want your child to live a healthy lifestyle. In America, 1 in 6 children is obese according to the CDC.

Children that are overweight have a harder time losing that weight as they get older. An intense sports camp will help your child build healthy habits and learn the importance of exercise and competition.

Playing sports is an enjoyable way to exercise and be healthy. Participating in a team sport encourages your child to work out with peers and stay in shape to be the best he or she can be. Supporting teammates and winning games can be an amazing motivator.

In addition to exercise, your child will learn which foods are best to eat for working out and remaining strong. Encouraging your child to eat healthy early on will help set the stage for later in life.

8. The Power of Independence

Most camps are day-long events. Parents will come pick their children up in the evening.

During this time, your child will be more independent and will learn that he or she will be fine if you are not there for short periods of time.

You can even choose overnight camps if your children are older and ready to be apart throughout the evening.

Your child will learn to look after himself when you are not there. Don’t worry, there are plenty of adults around to supervise. He or she will learn how to interact with others in different settings other than school.

Stepping out of a comfort zone will help your child learn basic ways to care for himself. You can have your child start before camp begins by having him create his own packing list and packing.

You can also have your child practice sports drills before camp based on a plan that she creates. This will encourage her to plan ahead and learn to stick to her plan.

Children are still developing and learning to care for themselves. Encouraging independence at an early age will help them as they mature into responsible adults.

Sending your child to sports camp may help parents and their independence as well. You may have a hard time letting go of your child. These short-term events are a good way to help you with this transition as your child ages.

Go Out and Find That Perfect Sports Camp

You can find numerous summer camps throughout your community. Ask your child’s coach, ask friends, and check the city’s recreation websites for some ideas.

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Joining the Sporty Lifestyle

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Sport and health go hand-in-hand. Playing sports increases your natural agility, and your physical and mental health. There are so many benefits for introducing and adopting the sporting lifestyle to your day. The best part, is that there is a sport for everyone! You can join a team, or you can embark on any of the solo sports. There are friends to be made in both avenues, and a multitude of benefits awaiting you.

The Benefits

To start, you should know about the benefits that adding a sport (of any kind) will do to your health. This is especially important if you need an extra boost of motivation to start being active again after a long period of being sedentary (say, if you work in an office).


  1. Your Short-Term Health

The benefits for playing sport can’t just be seen in the long term. In fact, there are immediate benefits that you will experience straight after your first workout. Immediately after pushing our bodies, they release chemicals called “endorphins”. These endorphins are commonly known as the happy hormone, because they trigger portions of your brain that reduce pain. This is perfect for those who struggle with low-self-esteem or even depression.

After a few weeks, your will see even more health benefits in the form of a stronger immune system, more natural energy, better mobility, and lower cholesterol levels. Your strength, balance, and coordination will also naturally improve even if you exercise (in any way) for 30 minutes, three days a week.


  1. Your Long-Term Health

Over time, the health benefits of having a sporty, active lifestyle compound. You can now benefit from a healthier heart, you can manage your weight better, lower hypertension or high blood pressure, control the risk of diabetes, improve your circulation, further improve your system’s immunity, and even add strength to your muscles and bones. This means that not only will you live longer, you’ll live better for years and years to come.


  1. Your Mental Health

The health benefits of living a sporty lifestyle don’t end there, either. Your mental health is just as important as your physical health, and living an active life can help you keep your mood levels high and to keep serious mental illnesses like depression at bay. This is due to the endorphins that are released from physical activity, combined with the benefits of a boosted self-esteem. The discipline needed to commit to a healthy lifestyle also gives you better control over your own life, and being active in a community can lead to long-lasting friendships.

Sporty Life Tips

Now that you know the benefits of living a sporty life, you need to now follow these tips to ensure that you don’t strain or hurt yourself.


  1. Get Proper Support

Proper support comes in many forms. It comes in having a spotter if you are working out in a gym, or following an instructor if you are doing an extreme sport. Most sports, however, need you to have the proper equipment. This means having the correct footwear support to keep you going and give you the balance that you need. As a bonus, many top brands make shoes that look great both when you are doing your sport and when you are walking down the street.


  1. Be Consistent

The benefits of living a sporting lifestyle only come into play when you commit to it. Doing one day of running won’t give you the long-term benefits that make exercise so important. You need to go out and be active at least three times a week. If you can’t make the time to do your sport that often a week, find other ways to be active. Walk to work, take the stairs, and more. You don’t have to only play the sport or sports of your choosing, but you should aim to be more active.


  1. Don’t Plateau  

Another challenge faced by athletes around the world is the issue of plateauing. This means that the workouts or sport that you do has reached a point where your body no longer gains benefits from it. Instead of reaching this point, try to push yourself every so often, and mix up your workout regimen. You need to do this both for the physical and the mental challenge it provides.

The sporty lifestyle is one that we should all adopt. There are so many sports and ways to exercise out there that everyone is bound to find one that they love doing. Get out there, do something fun, and reap the benefits that come with it.

To Become a Sports Leader Develop these Skills

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To become a sports leader takes a set of skills beyond an ability to play your sport. In every sport, there are those like Jack Elway, who have great statistics and excel. Yet many of these players have peers who do not look up to them or count on them for their leadership. While there are others that everyone in the league agrees is a true leader. The difference between these two players is that the second has developed leadership qualities. Here is a description of two of the most important qualities of a sports leader.

Have High Emotional Intelligence

At the root of all decision making sits emotional intelligence, which forms the base for emotional well-being and how that person makes decisions. It also forms the foundations for self-esteem which provides us with an ability to take on tough challenges. Sports leaders have matured emotionally and have a strong sense of self-worth; knowing how they want to treat people and be treated.

The core of this confidence can often be traced back to the person’s childhood and how they interacted with their parents. Did they have healthy and productive relationships with them? If so, there is a good chance that they matured a lot emotionally during that time. As they grew into their teens and peer focus became prevalent, if they had a great emotional foundation established with their parents, they could use this to set up relationships with their peers. If not, they might tend to gain an emotional grounding from their peer group, which can be shaky and often leads to problems for the young person. You will often hear sports leaders talk about someone who had a major emotional impact in their life. It might be a dad, mom or even a coach who acted as a father figure and provided an emotional grounding, and the key elements of emotional intelligence: how to identify their feelings, comprehend where they come from, and then learn how to deal with them.

Research has shown that emotional intelligence is a major predictor of success in relationships and can also tell whether the person is likely to make healthy choices in life. So sports leaders are likely to have very high emotional intelligence.

Take Responsibility

Sports leaders are always prepared to take responsibility for the conditions and outcomes of teams and games with which they are involved. Someone who is responsible accepts what their role is and the positive or negative consequences that result from their choices.

In many sports organizations and in society in general today too often qualities like responsibility are not stressed and nurtured and as a result they are not seen enough. The result is that too many people look to pass blame onto others and never get the lessons we all need to get from our failures. Failures often teach us more than victories and in fact they are also often the biggest part of a victory. Any sports leader will tell you that it is the things they learned while failing that made them so strong a competitor and leader. When you take on the responsibility role you also place yourself firmly in a position to fix whatever problem there was that occurred. Own it and then repair it. Sports leaders understand this so they always look to take responsibility.

These two qualities are important to understanding why someone becomes a sports leader. If you want to lead, focus on improving your leadership skills as well as your playing skills.

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